The basic recipe for a simple Irish Soda Bread has lately been turned into a more decadent version with raisins and caraway seeds. Usually, eggs are also added to make this versatile tea bread richer. Here I have for you an egg-free version of the Spotted Dog (with raisins) Irish Soda Bread, just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day!

My first ever Google+ Hangout was hosted by Brooks Walker of CakeWalkr.com on Making Irish Soda Bread. It is his recipe that I have tweaked to make my own egg-free version. There are also a couple of minor changes in the quantity of ingredients that I felt were necessary as I examined my dough at various stages.

Soda breads do not require yeast and are fairly easy to make. The Irish Soda bread tastes like a Scone and beneath its thick, golden crust lies a beautifully moist interior – dotted with beautiful raisins in my case.

Click Here to see Brooks recipe. My recipe is almost exactly the same except for:

1. I used Egg Replacer Powder equivalent of 1 egg to replace the egg.

2. I used 7 tablespoons of butter as opposed to the 6 mentioned in the original recipe since my dough would not hold well. I test my dough by holding it tight in my palm after I have mixed in the butter. If the dough takes the shape of my palm, it is done. If it does not, it needs more shortening.

3. I was out of caraway seeds, so I skipped them.

4. My dough required more liquid, so I ended up using 1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk.

I baked two loaves from this recipe. Which means we had 2 hours of divine smells coming from the kitchen (you know – the kind when you bake something with cinnamon in it). The first one did not last long after it came out from the oven. The second, we served with softened butter and marmalade and it tasted equally heavenly! The gorgeously rustic loaf was cut into thick slices that we slathered with salted butter and orange marmalade.

You can serve it with your favorite tea for a perfect teatime snack on St. Patrick’s Day or any other day throughout the year! And check out Brooks Walker on Google Plus. He hosts regular hangouts that food lovers wouldn’t want to miss.

New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

• Host a New Year’s Cocktail Party
Complete Party Planning Advice for hosting a stylish New Year’s Cocktail Party. Includes recipes for cocktails, Hors d’oeuvres and desserts

• Plan a Fabulous New Year’s Eve Dinner Party
New Year’s Eve is the perfect time to invite your closest friends over to share good food and good company. An elegant dinner party lets you and your friends review, renew, and rejoice.

• New Year’s Party Games
In addition to invitations, decorations and food, you’ll need fun party games to keep your guests entertained.

Shamrocks, shamrocks everywhere! These easy cards took me just about 15 minutes to make and did not require a hoard of crafting supplies to make. Click on the cards for instructions:

Your Valentine’s Day heart punch comes to use here. Punch out little green hearts and glue together 3 or 4 to make shamrocks. Easy!

Same way of making the shamrock, but the only difference is that 3 heart cutouts are used since this is a large shamrock. I usually have an assortment of basic shapes in different color but I ran out of green heart shapes and hence had to use poster color to make white heart die-cuts green. Again, when searching in my sewing box for matching floss or yarn to use, I could find none to match the exact color. So the poster colors came to my rescue again. I trimmed the yarn and then painted it with the same color.

I love to participate in worldwide Easter card exchanges and prefer to send handmade cards – ones my kids can help making. Easter card ideas that are easy to make for little kids (from 2 years to 8 years) and interesting enough for me to try them, is what I have researched upon and I came up with quite a collection. For moms looking for handmade Easter cards that they can create along with their kids, here are the best of them all!

5. Easter Basket Card

With your help, kids will love to create this honeycomb style pop-up Easter chick card. The instructions are in French and you will need Google’s ‘Translate’ tool to read them. The images accompanying the instructions are also very helpful.

Black and White is a classic color combination that looks good everywhere no matter how it is used. Using this combination for wrapping gifts looked like a great idea and once I started dabbling around, the results pleased me. Black and White wrapping paper looks very chic and elegant.

Making wrapping paper at home is an interesting craft activity and also a great way to save money by avoiding the extremely expensive gift wrap. I was making these designs with two goals in mind – they they be simple and easy to make, and that this be a frugal activity. These wrapping papers are made using craft paper and some basic supplies like white paint, a silver pen etc. You will not need an assortment of stamps and embellishments to make these. And which means that those who do not fall into the ‘avid crafters’ category will also find it easy to complete this project since it does not require any specialized techniques or supplies. I hope you enjoy making them and wrapping your gifts in these.

My Valentine’s Day gift to my dear husband this year were the Lindor truffles mentioned in my last post, a handmade Valentine and a Silver photo frame ready for his desk with the photo of his ‘two favorite girls’ – me and our daughter, Sanika.

I prefer Valentine’s Day gifts to be for ‘us’ rather than for ‘him’ or ‘her’. Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate romance and what could be more romantic than sharing a gift together. Some gifts that can be enjoyed together are:

1. DVD/VCD/Audio CDs

2. Chocolates

3. Photo Frames/Albums/Scrapbooks

4. Spa Gift Baskets

5. Movie Night Gift Baskets

6. Movie or Show Tickets

7. Dinner Gift Vouchers

8. Wine

9. Gourmet Gift Basket

10. Scented Candles or Aromatherapy Goodies

So, save the shirts, belts and ties for numerous occasions throughout the year like his birthday or a promotion or simply a ‘Happy No Reason’ and gift him something you will enjoy together on Valentine’s Day.

Are your kids (and you) bored of the same old Easter egg hunts year after year? Spark some creativity in this year’s egg hunt with these ideas from my website devoted completely to Easter – http://www.celebrating-easter.com/– and some from http://www.DotComWomen.com.